VP Mike Pence condemns ‘white supremacists’ after President Trump criticized for avoiding the term

Vice President Mike Pence condemned white supremacist groups during an interview that aired Monday morning on NBC’s “Today” show after President Trump faced criticism for his failure to use the term.

President Trump was widely criticized from both sides of the aisle for failing to name white supremacists or Nazis in his remarks about a violent protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. At a “Unite the Right” rally held by those groups protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, a protester allegedly drove his car into a crowd, killing one counter-protester and injuring 19 others, according to Politico.

Pence did condemn the groups by name in remarks to NBC, while defending Trump’s response to the violence.

“We will not tolerate hatred and violence of groups like white supremacists, the KKK, and neo-Nazis,” Pence said. “These extremist, fringe groups have no place in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”

Pence defended Trump’s remarks, arguing that the American people heard the president “speak plainly and condemn — in his words — in the strongest possible terms, organizations that convey hate and violence.”

Pence said that he thinks “many in the media are spending more time criticizing how the president addressed the issue yesterday.”

“Many in the media spent an awful lot of time focusing on what the president said and criticisms of what the president said instead of criticizing those who brought that hatred and violence to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia,” Pence said.

Asked if Trump should have specifically condemned white supremacists by name, Pence replied: “I think the president yesterday spoke to a national moment, words the American people needed to hear — that we condemn acts of violence, acts of hatred.”